Gig Review: alt-J, O2 Apollo Manchester, 20/09/2014

I went away to Croatia and arrived back in the UK on the 16th of September and was back to work the following day, suffering from serious post holiday blues I was SO glad to have a gig to look forward to, especially as I was getting to see a band I loved but whom I'd never had the privilege of watching live before.

alt-J are one of those bands who's success and recognition happened very quickly, their 1st album release saw them awarded a Mercury Prize award and receive lots and lots of praise from music critics. And it deserved it "An awesome wave" was just that, awesome - new and fresh, it sounded so unique and one of my favourtite tracks of theirs is still 'Matilda'.


Their new album again has taken a new turn more bluesy and maybe more mature, it has similar sounds of some Black Keys stuff and hey they're pretty brilliant too. It also contains some brilliant collabs, including surprisingly Miley Cyrus on 'Hunger for the pine' it gives their songs a whole new dimension.

The gig itself was amazing, visually the lighting was powerful and glaring almost masking the view of the 3 piece and their touring bassist and sounding - was spot on. The crowd were buzzing and thankfully it wasn't just hoards of 15 yr old kids drunk off cider either (not that I'm dissing cider, I was there with my plastic cup in hand too)


Although the songs from the 2nd album 'This is all yours' were great for a gig - making you want to dance to the soul vibes, undoubtedly the best moment of the night came during the encore (which happened swiftly, well done boys I'm an impatient girl) when they performed 'Breezeblocks' probably their most well known from the 1st album, it sounded incredible and received the biggest cheers and waving of arms of the evening. High 5s all round.